Cruise Ship Lecturers are Trainers in Disguise | 9 Skills to Develop

Cruise ship lecturers are often trainers in disguise. That is, the seminar leader on a cruise ship is an expert in some field. More often that not, you will, can be, or are paid to ‘drill down’ on your expertise in a learning arena.

Good trainers can make good lecturers and vice versa. The skills transfer across.

Skills to Develop:

1. Be yourself – I sometimes here coaches say, “Practice being genuine.” Huh? You either are authentic or you are not. Be transparent. Tell stories. Avoid the word I.

2. Be unique – if you are not you who is going to be you. Don’t try to be someone else. Guaranteed that the other person is having a hard time being themselves as is.

3. Be flexible – know how to adapt to your message to the audience. It can be as easy as changing the nouns. But sometimes it takes a lot of research.

5. Invite feedback – everybody says they want feedback but what they really mean is that they want people to say nice things to them. Get real feedback from people who’s opinions you respect and learn from them.

6. Iron sharpens iron – hang out with people who are better than or at least as good as you are and make each better.

7. Make mistakes – we absolutely learn more from the things we do wrong than the things we do right. Besides people who don’t make mistakes don’t do anything. And mistakes make for great fodder for future talks.

8. Keep testimonials – encouragement is not what people naturally offer up. When it comes, latch on to it. Review it from time to time. Give yourself a recharge.